Constituent to Senator Toomey: ‘take responsibility’

October 9, 2013

At a Danville Town Hall meeting recently, U.S. Senator Toomey explained why we do not have a greater number of higher paying jobs. The senator was told that $9 to $10 paying jobs do not help a person take care of their family. That is absolutely right. The senator agreed as well but provided a puzzling explanation.

Senator Toomey claimed that jobs are not as plentiful because they are going overseas. That seems like a fair explanation, but why did Senator Toomey neglect to bring up the “Bring Jobs Home Act.” This was a bill intended to reduce outsourcing by closing tax loopholes and giving tax incentives to companies that bring jobs back. The senator did not bring this up likely because he filibustered this sensible solution. If outsourcing is why we do not have higher paying jobs, then why did Senator Toomey agree to encourage the outsourcing?

Then, Senator Toomey explained that those companies continue to move overseas because of the high business taxes, but that those high business taxes must remain to sustain the $17 trillion debt. Once again, Senator Toomey neglected to take responsibility. Despite contributing to three budget surpluses, Toomey allowed PAYGO rules to expire. As these rules required that any new spending be offset by increases in revenue or decreases in spending elsewhere, the deficit soared when the statute ended. Toomey later tried to block attempts to re-establish this responsible and commonsense policy.

To add to his track record of choosing corporations over his constituents, Senator Toomey introduced the Data Protection Bill that protects companies over the consumers from even being sued due to a breach of private data. Where are his priorities?

It seems that Senator Toomey is quick to describe the problem and pass the buck but rarely displays an honest sense of responsibility before his constituents. How will we ever move forward without representatives who represent their constituents over their large corporation funders?